


Last Christmas

by ouzell



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Party, Enemies to Lovers, Fluff, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Period-Typical Homophobia, Reunions, Songfic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-07
Updated: 2019-07-07
Packaged: 2020-06-23 18:31:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19707061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ouzell/pseuds/ouzell
Summary: In a fic based on the song "Last Christmas" by George Michael, Jonathan returns to his hometown Hawkins for Christmas. In the process, he attempts to avoid his past demons.ORTommy H. runs into Jonathan at his own Christmas party.





	Last Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> I was supposed to post this last New Years but it's been this long how sick is that  
> It's short, but there is much more on the way that I'm still editing

_Last Christmas, I gave you my heart_

_But the very next day you gave it away_

_This year, to save me from tears_

_I'll give it to someone special_

Jonathan taps his fingers to the music, even though the song is a bitter reminder. The radio is always playing in his car, music keeping him company when others cannot. It’s Christmas Eve, and he is on his way back from NYU. Getting into his dream college had been a miracle in its own right, but it’d also served as an escape. What had he been escaping from? Well, the usual small town drama of course, not to mention the problems of sci-fi proportions— but what he’d ultimately been running from was a mistake: his own mistake.

He turns onto main street, and there it is- there is the mistake he made last Christmas and hasn’t stopped running from since.

Tommy doesn’t look up- he doesn’t even notice the cars passing as he chats up a girl that very obviously _isn’t_ Carol. Whether the two broke up or the guy’s just being his usual slimeball self, Jonathan doesn't bother to wonder. He just observes; the freckles on Tommy’s face are lighter in the winter, but if he got close enough, he could highlight each and every one in a single photograph. The car keeps rolling, but the cute way Tommy gets angry when you know more about him than he does himself lingers on his mind. That, and a few other old memories. They no longer seem so important, though. The world is so much bigger than Hawkins Indiana— a whole lot bigger than Tommy H. and his internalized problems. 

Once bitten and twice shy  
  
I keep my distance, but you still catch my eye  
  
Tell me baby, do you recognize me?  
  
Well, it’s been a year, it doesn’t surprise me  


Senior year’s Halloween party had been Jonathan’s first oddly personal peek into that life. Without anyone to talk to, he’d quickly and quietly resigned himself to sitting on the stairs. No one there was someone he considered a friend, and vice versa, leaving him to drink alone. So, bored and feeling a bit stupid, he thought he’d investigate. Maybe there was a less pathetic place to pretend to drink booze. Maybe there was something interesting to find along the way— besides, he was good at keeping the secrets he found. It wasn’t like he had anyone to tell them to.

But, once he found it, Tommy’s bedroom was nothing like he had imagined.

The walls were covered with posters from bands, movies, and magazines of all kinds; the floor was littered with clothes, and cassettes were tossed haphazardly around the TV and on his dresser. All that could be said for the place was that his bed was made. So, this was where Tommy slept. Jonathan wondered if Carol ever had anything to say about the state of his room- after all, they’d apparently been having sex since junior high. 

The rigid elegance and poise with which Tommy’s parents decorated the rest of the house seemed to have skipped this room. They’d left this corner of the world for Tommy H. to have himself. Then, he noticed the awards stacked haphazardly in the closet, and the lack of family photographs throughout the house. At first he felt justice in that, as if this apparent isolation were some kind of karma. However, it slowly turned to a kind of sympathy- or maybe pity. He couldn’t tell. Jonathan just knew he couldn’t exactly condemn this bully to the same fate he already knew himself, no matter how big of a jerk he was.

Just as Jonathan took another bitter sip of beer, however, the doorknob rattled behind him. A panic shook his core, but with nowhere to go, he could only turn around and face his fate.

It was Tommy himself— first shocked, then irritated. “What the fuck are you doing in my room, psycho?” He’d chosen to dress up as Tom Cruise from Top Gun, but the lipstick smeared on his lips broke the character a little bit. Apparently Carol’s costume included a deep shade of red.

“I-“ 

He’d closed the door behind him though, probably to shut out the noise. “You better not have touched anything- I heard crazy is _contagious_.”

The closed door put Jonathan on guard, but he reminded himself that Tommy had probably had more to drink than he had, so if things went south he’d be fine. “Just let me leave. I don’t want any trouble.”

“Then why’d you come to the party in the first place, creep?”

Irritance colored his words with anger. “I dunno Tommy H., maybe freaks like to go to shitty parties like this one too?” On second thought, maybe he’d also had too much to drink— his emotions were starting to get the better of him. “Why do you have to be such a _dick_ all the time?”

Jaw clenched and eyes smoldering, Tommy glared as Jonathan spoke. He listened, though, even as the last words were spat at him. That’s when he decided to take action with quick, clumsy movements—

And socked him right in the stomach.

The wind was knocked out of his lungs— Jonathan dropped his cup and doubled over in pain with a groan.All he could manage was a weak, “Fuck…”

There was a snicker from the other. “Feel normal yet, Byers?” Tommy’s adam’s apple bobbed as he finished off the rest of his beer and tossed the cup aside.

It took a few moments for Jonathan to catch his breath again, but as soon as he did a thousand different insults streamed through his mind, every one as vile as the next. He only glared in silence though, for another rude word out of his mouth and he might get punched again. He coughed.

Tommy H. took another step forward. 

When he tried to take a step back, the bed pressed against the back of his legs and threatened to make him lose his balance.

“You scared?” His breath smelled like beer.

“...No.” Jonathan murmured, knowing that if he could just get through this and catch up to the future, the present wouldn’t be so bad.

Tommy had looked surprised at his defiance, even though they both knew that there was no way out for him. The hand clenching the front of Jonathan’s shirt loosened, and his smirk grew just a little bit more smug.

Still wary, Jonathan straightened his collar, but didn’t step any closer to Tommy in the meantime. He might only stay nonviolent for so long.

“I’ve got my eye on you, Byers.” The boys’ freckled face leered closer, and his victim tensed again. It was a long, intimidating moment before his brown eyes flickered down, then back up to Jonathan. “But I’ll let you go.” A snicker, and he stepped away.

And that had been the end of it.


End file.
